History

Originally in the later County of Holland, Old Frisian was spoken. Low Franconian settlers did not come until the 12th and 13th centuries , when Flemish settlers, speaking Frankish, played an important part in draining the swamplands between the coast of Holland and the city of Utrecht. They mixed with the original inhabitants, and a Hollandic dialect was created that was partly Franconian and partly Frisian .

In the 16th century, Dutch was standardised, with the Brabantian dialect of Antwerp being the most influential one, according to many linguists. The written language of the County of Holland, which was the most urbanised area in Europe, began to imitate the Brabantian standard.

During the Eighty Years' War, especially after 1585, the Sack of Antwerp and the 1580s successes of the Duke of Parma made between 100,000 and 200,000 of Brabantish and Flemish, many Calvinist, settle in the cities of Holland proper. The refugees caused a mixture of their dialects with those of the people who were already there. The new language replaced most of the original Hollandic dialects with Brabantian influences and further diluted the Frisian influences on Dutch.

That certainly slowed linguistic change by the influence on spoken language of the very conservative written standard. As a result, Standard Dutch has kept many features of late-16th-century Brabantian.

Distance from standard language

The colloquial Dutch in Holland proper (the area of the old County of Holland), particularly the Hollandic now spoken in some urban areas, is closer to Standard Dutch than anywhere else.

In Zaanstreek (central North Holland), a traditional region, the old Hollandic dialect, [Zaans]], is still found but with little West Frisian influence. Some words are similar because of the influence of migrating West Frisian farmers in the 13th to the 15th centuries. Zaans can be seen as one of the few (together with Westfries) and oldest original Hollandic dialects and is still spoken today, like the old Waterlands dialect, which exists as well in Volendam. Both Zaans and Waterlands are unintelligible for someone who does not come from that region in North Holland. However, people who speak Zaans, West Frisian or Waterlands are able to understand one another better than outsiders because all three dialects use similar words.

On the South Holland island of Goeree-Overflakkee, West Flemish is spoken. In the east and south, the Hollandic dialects gradually become Brabantian forms like the South Guelderish. Utrechts-Alblasserwaards, spoken in the area immediately east of the coastal districts, is considered to be a subdialect of Hollandic or a separate dialect.